Sometimes it seems like the Audi S3 is the forgotten child of Audi’s performance lineup. It’s a slightly strange offering: Hot-hatch performance in a premium-priced compact sport sedan. I’m here to tell you the 2022 Audi S3 is not to be ignored. While it’s not flawless, there’s some serious performance here.
Full Disclosure: Audi initially offered to loan me an A3 for a week. But I asked, “What do you have that’s faster?” So they delivered me an S3 with a full tank of gas, tossed me the keys, and told me to enjoy myself for a week.
What Is It?
The Audi S3 is the smallest and cheapest way to get into Audi’s S performance line. It’s the littlest sibling in the S family. While the S3 has been around since 1999 in Europe and other countries, in sedan and hatchback forms, Audi only brought the A3 and S3 sedans to the U.S. for the 2015 model year. (The A3 hatch has been on sale here since 2006.) The current model is the fourth generation of the S3 but the second available in the U.S. This being a VW Group product, it shares its platform with what seems like dozens of other vehicles, most of which aren’t sold in the U.S.
The competition in this segment is getting sparse. Luxury automakers are eliminating entry-level offerings, and sedans in general, to focus on more pricey and profitable utility vehicles. So the S3 runs in a small circle, competing against the recently updated BMW 2 Series and Mercedes CLA 35/45 AMG. You could even throw in the 2023 Acura Integra, though it’s way down on power compared to the rest of this crowd. The S3's closest competitor might be its own variant, the rowdy five-cylinder RS3. Anything else that comes close to the S3's performance is cheaper but far less premium.
Specs That Matter
The S3 utilizes a slightly detuned version of the turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder powerplant from the VW Golf R. While the Golf R makes 315 horsepower, the S3 makes 306 hp and 295 lb-ft of torque. With its Quattro all-wheel drive system and a seven-speed automatic transmission, that’s enough power to get this 3,538-pound sedan to 60 mph in a manufacturer estimated 4.5 seconds. While some power-hungry weirdos may complain that’s not enough oomph, you’re still quicker than most cars on the road in this thing. What’s even more impressive is that it’s pretty efficient despite the performance: EPA fuel economy numbers for the S3 sit at 23 mpg city / 32 mpg highway / 27 mpg combined. Not bad.
I meant it when I said the S3 is the cheapest way to get into a fast Audi: Pricing starts at $44,900. But it rises quickly if you want any premium or cool-looking features. The S3 I drove had options like a $2,800 Premium Plus package with adaptive cruise control, wireless phone charging, and a memory driver’s seat; a $2,250 Tech package that brought Audi’s excellent Virtual Cockpit, traffic sign recognition, and a Bang & Olufsen 3D sound system; a $1,950 Black Optics package with bigger 19-inch wheels, summer tires, and blacked out trim from the roof to the grille to the quad exhaust tips; a Fine Nappa Leather package that covered the seats in diamond-stitched hides and added carbon fiber inlays on the dash.
Finally, there’s a $1,100 S Sport package with red painted brake calipers and a sport suspension with damper control. Including the $1,045 destination charge, this S3 rang in at $55,890 — a lot of coin for a compact performance sedan.
What’s Good
The interior looks fantastic. The angular design with beveled edges on various surfaces may not work for everyone, but I think it’s great here. It looks even better when you compare it to previous generations of the A3/S3, where the minimalist interior basically screamed “I’m the cheapest Audi you can buy!” As with everything in Audi’s current lineup, the materials and finishes are all high-quality.
Audi’s Virtual cockpit is great. The layout of the digital speedo and tach change depending on drive mode; one configuration shows you a full Google Earth map on the 10.25-inch instrument panel display, making it easy to follow the nav without having to turn to the center screen. The display options are fantastic.
For a compact sedan, the interior space surprised me. Headroom and legroom were fantastic. Even at 6-foot tall, there was room for someone to sit behind my driver’s seat without issue.
The styling works too. Previous S3s were pretty sedate, so much so that you wouldn’t clock it as a performance model until you saw the tiny red badge or the quad exhausts.
This one looks like it means performance. Granted, most of that has to do with the Black Optics package, which gives the S3 a dose of intensity. But even without that package, this is an aggressive looking car.
How It Drives
I call this thing a pocket rocket for a reason. There’s something about a little sedan that can hit 60 mph in less than five seconds. The chassis tuning makes it tossable in the most pleasing way. Throw it into a corner and the Quattro system uses all 295 lb-ft of torque to pull it out. It understeers a bit, and it doesn’t have the torque-vectoring rear differential you get in the Golf R. But that’s not a big issue.
There is also a bit of turbo lag. Well, more than a bit — it’s noticeable every time you hit the gas. From a standstill, there’s a notable delay before the car starts moving. But once that turbo is spooling, it delivers a wave of torque. Need to make a pass? Slam that gas pedal down and the power delivery is damn near instant. The seven-speed dual-clutch fires off fast shifts, and with larger brakes over the standard A3 (14.1-inch front/ 12.2-inch rear rotors), that speed drops quickly when you need it to.
What’s Weak
For a car that has quad exhaust tips, it sure does have a muted exhaust note — there’s practically no exhaust sound in the cabin. You can hear engine sounds, but it seems like most of it is artificial.
The gear selector toggle takes some getting used to. It’s strange to operate, and I often found myself driving with the transmission in Sport mode unintentionally.
While the design of the interior works from a styling perspective, those angles do create a couple of annoyances. For instance, the wireless charging pad is angled away from the driver, towards the front of the car. While this sounds like a snug place for the phone to rest, it mostly ends up sliding around, especially during hard driving.
Another annoyance: The 10.1-inch center-dash touchscreen, the main interface of the MMI infotainment system, is canted forward. This means, if you have the sunroof open, sunlight directly hits the screen, making it pretty much useless.
Speaking of MMI... It still sucks. The visuals are nice, and it’s perfectly okay when it’s working normally. But the infotainment software is still too laggy and buggy for my taste. Switching between menus is an affair of waiting; entire seconds pass between when you select a function on the screen and when the system executes it. The system also seems to have trouble going from the native navigation app to any other screen. It’s like the extremely detailed resolution of the built-in Google Earth navigation is too much for the system to support.
MMI is so laggy, I try to avoid using it as much as possible in any new Audi I drive. Thank god for Apple CarPlay.
Also, one more gripe: Don’t plan on being comfortable when you put the adaptive suspension in its Dynamic setting. It’s harsh and bouncy — so much so, I usually drove the S3 with every other aspect of the car in Dynamic mode except the suspension. It’s not Ford Focus RS brutal, but it’s enough to make you say “this isn’t fun anymore” after being in the car for 10 minutes.
Verdict
The S3 is part of a rare group of vehicles today: compact performance sedans. Audi could have easily settled on making performance-oriented crossovers and called it a day.
But they didn’t. They gave buyers an impressive-driving, premium small sedan with performance that will shock some people. While it’s not without shortcomings, overall, the S3 is a great little sport sedan, the kind of vehicle we could use more of.